The Association of Student Governments is an organization that represents all 17 schools in the UNC system. Yet when it comes to distributing its $10,000 in campus innovation grants in what is supposed to be an egalitarian process, the association’s president appears to be putting his school above the rest — and willing to take constitutional liberties to do it.
At a meeting in Charlotte last weekend, ASG President Atul Bhula showed a disregard for how the grants have traditionally been distributed in trying to get his school, Appalachian State University, the resources it needs to compete in the U.S. Department of Energy’s Solar Decathlon in Washington.
He equated the event to the Super Bowl and said the university’s performance was good for the state, not just itself.
Because the funds have historically been allocated to individual schools up to $1,000 at a time, there was doubt as to whether $10,000 could be given to Appalachian State University, a sum Bhula’s predecessor, former ASG president Greg Doucette, described in an interview as “utterly absurd.” Bhula said at the meeting that if a constitutional obstacle were in place, fixing it wouldn’t be a problem.
The campus innovation grants were originally designed to allow universities access to the surplus of the previous year ASG budget.
By giving the excess money back to the schools, ASG hoped to find the 10 best innovation projects from the 17 system schools and give them an equal chance at funding. It was designed this way in order to be fair as well as give the UNC system the best chance of creating truly innovative results.
However, over the past few years, this program has drifted away from its original goals. Last year, for instance, UNC-Greensboro received $1,000 for the Great T-shirt Exchange: Out with the old, in with the Blue and Gold. The program allowed students to trade shirts in for a UNC-Greensboro shirt, with school spirit as the goal.
Now, delegates are discussing an allocation that would prove unprecedented — and one-sided. The committee still has a chance to properly allocate these funds. It should not even consider making such a one-sided allotment over a fair and effective one, even at the request of the president.
ASG needs to work harder to make sure this program realizes its true potential. It allows all the universities to take back some of the unused money that they paid to ASG and put it to work for students. ASG must take care not to waste money in a process intended to eliminate waste in the name of innovation.
